Method of forming a sugarless coating on chewing gum

Abstract

A method of forming a sugarless coating on chewing gum cores comprises: providing chewing gum cores; providing a coating syrup comprising one or more sugarless sweeteners; providing a dusting mix comprising about 20% to about 60% of a bulk sweetener selected from the group consisting of malitol, hydrogenated isomaltulose, lactitol, sorbitol and mixtures thereof and about 40% to about 80% filler; and applying a plurality of layers of the coating syrup and a plurality of layers of the dusting mix to the chewing gum cores to form a sugarless coating on the gum cores.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to chewing gum, and more particularly to a method of making chewing gum products with a sugarless coating. [0002] Coated chewing gum products are well known. Many such products are made with a sugarless coating. For example, products that are designed to not promote tooth decay do not use fermentable sugars in the product, or in coatings on the product. Instead, sugarless sweeteners such as sorbitol, maltitol, xylitol, erythritol, lactitol, hydrogenated isomaltulose and others are used in the product. [0003] While a hard, crunchy coating is desirable, it has proven difficult to make such coatings when using sugarless sweeteners. Considerable effort and patent activity has taken place in this area. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,238,510 and 4,317,838 to Cherukuri et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,571,547 to Serpelloni et al. [0004] One of the problems faced by chewing gum manufacturers is cost and availability of sugarless ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007] The use of a large quantity of filler in the dusting mix reduces the cost of the coating, yet the method of the present invention provides a way to use such a filler and still produce a quality gum coating. In preferred embodiments of the invention, more readily available forms of sugarless sweeteners are used, which is a further benefit to chewing gum manufacturers.

Problems solved by technology

While a hard, crunchy coating is desirable, it has proven difficult to make such coatings when using sugarless sweeteners.

Considerable effort and patent activity has taken place in this area.

One of the problems faced by chewing gum manufacturers is cost and availability of sugarless sweeteners.

For example, maltitol, which gives a good coating, is fairly expensive, and sources of high purity powdered maltitol may be limited.

Some sugarless sweeteners may be less expensive, but it is difficult to form high quality coatings with them.